793 research outputs found
Building an industry of choice: service quality, workforce capacity and consumer-centred funding in disability care
Get PDFDisability services in Australia are undergoing large-scale, systemic reform. In recent years, to improve outcomes for people with disabilities and the efficiency of services, Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies have developed and trialled a range of market-based funding models within which ‘choice’ and ‘control’ are key principles. This report is concerned with the impact of these funding models on disability services workers, with particular focus on their capacity to provide high quality services. The findings suggest service quality and workforce capacity may be best safeguarded where: direct employment and contracting models are carefully managed or avoided; overall levels of government funding and payments to consumers and service provider organisations are sufficient to support decent pay and safe working conditions; workers are supported to upgrade and develop their skills; and there is a properly resourced strategy to build workforce capacity and sustainability. The findings provide food for thought in the context of the design and launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
This report was prepared for United Voice, Australian Services Union, and Health and Community Services Union.
Authors: Natasha Cortis, Gabrielle Meagher, Sharni Chan, Bob Davidson & Toby Fattor
Dataset - Australian Community Sector Survey 2019
No full textThis dataset provides information about Australia’s community sector in late 2019. It highlights the community sector’s characteristics and strengths as it works to address poverty and disadvantage. The survey was conducted by the Social Policy Research Centre in collaboration with Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the COSS Network. The survey was completed by 1,454 community sector staff, including 406 people in organisational leadership positions. Questions were asked about community sector workers' experiences of working to address poverty and disadvantage; demand for community services and capacity to meet demand; perceptions of competition, collaboration and advocacy; and job characteristics, and working conditions. Additional questions were asked of survey respondents who were in leadership positions, including funding arrangements and financial position of their service; responses to financial pressure; financial institutions; and receipt of Equal Remuneration Supplementation from government funders. The Australian Community Sector Survey 2019 was the first conducted since The Australian Community Sector Survey 2014. However, while the broad goals of the surveys in 2014 and 2019 and approach to sampling were similar, the survey instrument was redeveloped for 2019
Ep. #012 - Natasha Myers
No full textThis recording and transcript form part of a collection of podcasts conducted by the Cultures of Energy at Rice University. Cultures of Energy brings writers, artists and scholars together to talk, think and feel their way into the Anthropocene. We cover serious issues like climate change, species extinction and energy transition. But we also try to confront seemingly huge and insurmountable problems with insight, creativity and laughter.It’s all about plants on this week’s Cultures of Energy podcast. Our guide is anthropologist Natasha Myers, director of the Plant Studies Collaboratory at York University (https://natashamyers.wordpress.com) and author of Rendering Life Molecular: Models, Modelers, and Excitable Matter (Duke University Press, 2015). We talk about Natasha’s work in savannah ecosystems millennia in the making, how to sniff out chemical atmospheres and queer environmental monitoring practices. Natasha explains how plants conduct inquiry in their worlds, their sense and sentience, how they both catalyze and epitomize ecological relations. We discuss how plants trouble human notions of subjectivity, the possibility a plant-based phenomenology, end-of-time botanical tourism in Singapore, and whether gardening can be a redemptive practice. Natasha envisions plants as photosynthetic world-makers and tells us that if we humans want to thrive, our plants needs to thrive too. It’s time to embrace the Planthropocene
National Survey of the Family and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Workforces, Workers Survey, 2017
No full textThe National Survey of the Family and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Workforces, 2017 study involved two surveys, the design and interpretation of which was informed by stakeholder consultations. Two survey instruments were used: (1) a survey of service leaders, which was distributed for completion by a senior staff member responsible for workforce management or workforce development in their service; and (2) a survey of workers. This is the survey of workers, which captured experiences of working in services used by people affected by violence. It captured workers' characteristics, their confidence in various areas of practice, their job satisfaction and intention to leave. Questions also include workers' levels of contact with people affected by violence, their experience and qualifications, employment arrangements, competence in recognising and responding to violence, training and support, supervision, and job quality
National Survey of the Family and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Workforces, Service Leaders Survey, 2017
No full textThe National Survey of the Family and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Workforces, 2017 study involved two surveys, the design and interpretation of which was informed by stakeholder consultations. Two survey instruments were used: (1) a survey of service leaders, which was distributed for completion by a senior staff member responsible for workforce management or workforce development in their service; and (2) a survey of workers. This is the survey of service leaders, which captured experiences of leaders in services used by people affected by violence. It captured their characteristics, and their perspectives on various areas of practice. Questions include levels of contact with people affected by violence in their organisations, their experience and qualifications, employment arrangements, competence in recognising and responding to violence, training and support, supervision, and job quality
Domestic violence and women’s economic security: building Australia’s capacity for prevention and redress - final report
Get PDFThe research report builds on the literature review contained in the ANROWS Landscapes paper “Building effective policies and services to promote women’s economic security following domestic violence: State of knowledge paper” (Cortis and Bullen, 2015). That paper discussed how economic abuse is a frequent, yet under-researched tactic of violence. Financial issues, including the prospect of leaving property or assets behind, are major factors in women’s decisions about leaving or staying in violent relationships, and the economic difficulties arising from violence, including loss of wealth upon separation, reverberate through women’s lives and increase hardship in the long-term. The Landscapes paper also highlighted evidence of inadequacies in the systems intended to identify, prevent and respond to the economic harms arising from violence.
This report builds on the Landscapes paper with new statistical analysis and qualitative evidence. The statistical material reinforces how domestic violence contributes to alarming levels of financial stress among Australian women. Domestic violence is associated with economic stressors which penalise women for a number of years after violence is experienced. Interviews with stakeholders demonstrate widespread perceptions that although Australia has some highly effective initiatives in place, these operate on too small a scale to fully address the extent or range of women’s needs
Atmospheric mineral dust emission and climatological variables for Etosha Pan, Namibia (2000-2022)
No full textCSV data files containing records of mineral dust plume events (dust point source locations lat/long, start and end time, duration, plume movement direction, and sensor used for detection), extrapolated monthly, seasonal and annual dust plume event and dust days (i.e. count of days in which a dust plume was observed) and dust optical depth (DOD) data, and associated records of meteorological and hydrological variables for dust plume events (i.e. 10 m wind speed, lake area extents, catchment precipitation totals and specific source point surface wetting frequencies by precipitation and ephemeral flooding, and El Niño Southern Oscillation [ENSO 3.4] and South Indian Ocean Dipole [SIOD] index values) for Etosha Pan, Namibia for the analysis period from July 1999 to January 2023.
All datasets are readable using CSV file viewer software.
Dust plume event data were analysed manually by the author Natasha S. Wallum. Data used for detection were sourced from Terra and Aqua satellites MODIS level 1b and Aerosol data acquired from the Atmospheric Archive and Distribution System (LAADS) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC), located in the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (https://ladsweb.nascom.nasa.gov/) and SEVIRI data procured from the EUMETSAT Data Store (https://data.eumetsat.int/search?query=). Analysis of SEVIRI imagery utilised the Clear Sky Differencing (CSD) algorithm developed by Jon Murray and colleagues (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2016JD025221).
Lake area extent data were derived by density thresholding of near-infrared (NIR) reflectance data from the MODIS Terra satellite obtained from NASA’s LAADS DAAC data portal (https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/) and verified using Level-2 (8-day) images collected from Landsat 5 TM (1984–2012) and Landsat 8 OLI (2013 – present day) sensors were acquired through the USGS Earth Explorer data portal (www.earthexplorer.com).
The contributing catchment (Cuvelai-Etosha Basin) was derived from the HydroBASINS (Lehner and Grill, 2013) catchment database (https://hydrosheds.org/products/hydrobasins), and this area was used to derive daily precipitation inputs for 2000–2022 (July – June hydrological year) from The Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for GPM (GPM-IMERG) and The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) gridded time-series of precipitation available from the Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/).
These data were augmented by limited monthly precipitation records (2000–2022) from 10 local weather stations (Mahenene, Ondjiva, Namacunde, Oshaambelo, Ogongo, Ondangwa, Okashana, Okapya, Okaukuejo, and Mannheim) provided by the Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL; https://sasscal.org/) and continuous rain gauge measurements recorded at Windpoort located in close proximity to Etosha Pan within the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin.
Near-surface (10 m) wind speeds (m/s) and cubed wind speed anomaly data were derived from ERA5-Land reanalysis model data product available from the Copernicus Climate Change Service Data Store (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/).
Surface wetting frequencies and time since wetting for dust event source points were calculated by the author Natasha S. Wallum using ArcGIS Pro (education licence on behalf of the University of Oxford).
Global climate indices of SST anomalies data (ENSO 3.4 and SIOD) were obtained from the Climate Diagnostics Centre (CDC) online archives (http://psl.noaa.gov/data/climateindices) and the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) site maintained by the Frontier Research System for Global Change (FRSGC)/Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) Climate Variations Research Program (http://www.jamstec.go.jp)
Parental joblessness, financial disadvantage and the wellbeing of parents and children
Get PDFThis paper used Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data to analyse links between parental employment and the wellbeing of families.The study found that jobless families and families with short part-time hours (fewer than 21 hours) were at considerable financial disadvantage compared to families with full-time or long part-time hours of employment.Of the children in the study, 5 per cent were living in a family with short part-time hours, and 11 per cent lived in a jobless family – this figure includes half of the children of single parents. Developmental outcomes for these children were lower than those for children in families working more than 21 hours. Joblessness and short part-time hours contributed to these poor outcomes for children through the effect of financial stress on parents.Authored by Jennifer Baxter, Matthew Gray, Kelly Hand, and Alan Hayes
State of the community service sector in NSW 2015
Get PDFBased on survey data collected from leaders of 513 organisations, the report provides rich information about sector capacity, sustainability, and engagement with government. It shows the sector\u27s strengths as a collaborative, diverse and feminised industry. It also shows leaders\u27 perspectives on the challenges facing the sector. These include adapting to policy change and meeting social need at a time that many organisations are affected by funding loss, funding inadequacy, and funding insecurity.  
Evaluating Area-based Interventions: The Case of ‘Communities for Children’
Get PDFIncreasingly, governments in wealthy countries are designing early intervention initiatives around principles of ‘community regeneration’ or ‘place management’. Because these initiatives are multi-site, aimed at long-term systemic change, and implemented amidst a range of other initiatives, assessing their quality and outcomes demands departure from conventional programme evaluation approaches. This article analyses the challenges of evaluating area-based interventions in the child welfare field, and shows how the National Evaluation of Australia’s ‘Communities for Children’ initiative seeks to overcome these through its mixed method design and the longitudinal Stronger Families in Australia study
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